Anastomosis is a procedure by which two hollow tissue structures are joined together. More particularly, vascular anastomosis is a procedure by which two blood vessels within a patient are surgically joined together. Vascular anastomosis is performed during treatment of a variety of conditions including coronary artery disease, diseases of the great and peripheral vessels, organ transplantation, and trauma. In coronary artery disease (CAD) an occlusion or stenosis in a coronary artery interferes with blood flow to the heart muscle. Treatment of CAD involves the grafting of a vessel in the form of a prosthesis or harvested artery or vein to reroute blood flow around the occlusion and restore adequate blood flow to the heart muscle. This treatment is known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Anastomosis tools and anastomosis devices have been developed to simplify the CABG procedure and improve the quality of patient care. For example, Cardica's C-PORT® distal anastomosis tool allows surgeons to quickly create a high-quality connection between a graft vessel and a coronary artery. A graft vessel is loaded onto the distal end of that tool, and an end of that graft vessel is then connected to the coronary artery by stapling.